Happy Birthday, Gary Kubiak

Near the end of Thursday morning’s workout — the last of training camp, as it turned out — coach Gary Kubiak had his players gather around him in the middle of the practice field.

Before Kubiak could provide any words of wisdom — or chew some serious butt, as he sometimes does — the players serenaded him with “Happy Birthday.” Their coach turned 52 today.

“I’ve been celebrating my birthday in camp for a long time,” said Kubiak, whose first year in the NFL was 1983 with the Denver Broncos. “I appreciated them doing that. It was pretty good. It wasn’t the traditional Happy Birthday. I thought they did a good job.”

Kubiak, who’s in his eighth season as the Texans coach, was 44 when he was hired to coach his hometown team.